TL;DR
Akron is built for a winter day trip with kids and even babies: almost everything sits within a few miles of downtown, and the indoor stops are cheap. Start at the Akron Children’s Museum when it opens, skate or ride ice bumper cars at Lock 3 next door, warm up at the Akron Zoo where winter crowds are thin, and finish at the Akron Art Museum, which is free every Thursday and always free for anyone 17 and under. If there is snow on the ground, swap an indoor stop for sledding at Kendall Hills or a short walk at F.A. Seiberling Nature Realm. Hours shift in the off-season, so check each website the morning you go.
Morning: Akron Children’s Museum
Kids & toddlers are off from school? No problem. Toddler day care can wait – this children’s museum is sure to be a blast for you and your kids. Start downtown at 216 S. Main Street. The museum is built for ages roughly 0 to 8, with 17 hands-on exhibits including a farm where kids pick apples and gather eggs, a pretend doctor’s office, and an excavation station full of sand. Admission is $8 per person, infants under 1 are free, and the museum takes part in Museums for All, which drops admission to $2 per person for up to four guests with an EBT, SNAP, or WIC card and matching ID.
Go in the morning, because the museum closes at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Saturday runs 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday noon to 5 p.m. It is closed Monday and Tuesday. Park in the O’Neil’s/State Street deck at 51 W. State Street and bring your ticket to the front desk for validation.
Late Morning: Ice Skating at Lock 3
Walk out of the museum and you are already there. Lock 3 Park sits in the heart of downtown next to the Akron Civic Theatre, and its winter programming, Winterblast, turns the park into an outdoor rink with ice bikes and ice bumper cars. Skating admission recently ran $10 including skate rental, $5 if you bring your own, and $8 for children’s double-blade buckle skates. Ice bumper cars were $12 for ten minutes and take online reservations. No reservation is needed just to skate.
The rink is genuinely popular: the city reported roughly 500 skaters on an average weekday and about double that on weekends. If your kids are small and wobbly, aim for a weekday late morning rather than a Saturday afternoon. Lock 3 is closed Mondays and Tuesdays during the winter season, and the rink usually wraps up in mid-February, so check dates before you build a day around it.
Midday: Akron Zoo in the Off-Season
A zoo in January sounds like a strange idea until you go. Winter is when the snow leopards, red pandas, Humboldt penguins, and grizzlies are at their most active, and the paths are close to empty. The Akron Zoo sits on 77 acres just west of downtown at 505 Euclid Avenue, houses more than 1,000 animals, and is the most visited attraction in Summit County.
Off-season hours run 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily from October 1 through early April. The zoo uses plan-ahead pricing, so tickets bought online cost less than tickets at the counter, general admission falls in a range rather than a fixed price, children under 2 are free, and parking is free. The zoo closes on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day, and it occasionally closes for severe weather, so call ahead if the forecast looks rough.
Afternoon: Akron Art Museum
Back downtown at 1 South High Street, the Akron Art Museum is the cheapest warm stop on this list. Children 17 and under are always free, adult admission is $12, adults with an Ohio EBT card pay $3, and gallery admission is free for everyone every Thursday. The building itself is worth the trip: 19th-century brick and limestone fused with a glass-and-steel addition by the Viennese firm Coop Himmelb(l)au, which kids tend to react to more strongly than adults expect.
Two things to watch the calendar for. Family Days run mostly on Sunday afternoons and are free to the public, and Mess Makers, a drop-in art session for ages 0 to 5, meets on the second Wednesday of the month from September through May. The museum is also KultureCity Sensory Inclusive certified, with sensory bags and designated quiet areas, which makes it one of the easier outings for a child who gets overwhelmed. Hours are noon to 5 p.m. Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, noon to 9 p.m. Thursday, and closed Monday and Tuesday.
If There Is Snow: Sledding at Kendall Hills
Twenty minutes north of downtown, Cuyahoga Valley National Park opens Kendall Hills for sledding and tobogganing off Quick Road in Peninsula, about a mile east of Akron Peninsula Road. Bring your own sled. Park at Pine Hollow, Crow Foot Gully, or Little Meadow; separate areas are marked for sleds and toboggans, some sections stay closed to protect cross-country ski trails, and pets are not allowed during sledding. The hill is large, so expect a real walk back up with a toddler in tow.
If you would rather walk than sled, the Boston Mill Visitor Center at 6947 Riverview Road rents snowshoes in adult and child sizes once snow reaches about four inches, and rangers there lend hiking poles on a first-come basis.
Free and Quiet: F.A. Seiberling Nature Realm
When you need an hour outdoors that costs nothing, head to 1828 Smith Road in West Akron. This 104-acre Summit Metro Parks property has short wooded trails, two ponds, gardens, a 110-foot suspension bridge, and a visitors center with interactive exhibits and a glass wall for watching birds at the feeders. Admission and parking are free, and the visitors center is open Wednesday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday noon to 5 p.m. One rule to know before you load the car: this is a designated nature-study area, so pets are not permitted anywhere in the park.
Planning Notes for Parents
- Two stops is a full day with a toddler. Pick one indoor stop in the morning and one in the afternoon, with lunch and a nap in between. Trying to hit four will end badly for everyone.
- Check hours the morning of. Almost every attraction here closes Monday and Tuesday in winter or runs shortened off-season hours.
- Downtown parking is easy. Meters are free after 6 p.m. on weekdays and all day on weekends, and the State Street, Cascade, and CitiCenter decks all sit within a short walk of Lock 3.
- Layer for the car, not the sidewalk. Remove bulky winter coats before buckling a car seat, then put the coat on backwards over the straps once everyone is strapped in.
Looking for more low-cost ideas closer to home? This roundup of affordable winter toddler activities in Akron covers the indoor play spaces and free options that fill in the weeks between day trips.
Winter weekdays covered too
Clever Bee Academy has served Akron families since 2001, with programs from infant care through preteens. See our Akron child care programs or our after school options, then schedule a tour to see a classroom in action.
